


The Fourth Life of Virgil

by orphan_account



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series), Thomas Sanders
Genre: Aliases, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Alternate Universe - High School, Deceit is here of course there's gonna be lies, Gen, I am bad at summaries I have to redo three times, I swear I keep forgetting to add some tags back, Lies, Memory Loss, Rebirth, the memory loss isn't permanent either, there's death but it's not permanent, third times the charm right
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-24
Packaged: 2019-05-07 08:09:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14666910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The kitchen fire that lead to a explosion was definitely an accident; if it wasn't, well, Virgil was going to find that out.After dying in an apartment fire/explosion, Virgil has found himself in his fourth body since he learned he could be reborn. Only downside, Virgil loses his memories after he's reborn. Another downside, Virgil has friends that are exactly like him, who also died in that fire. Now, Virgil must go through high school - for the fourth time - find his friends and help them regain their memories all while trying to figure out how the fire happened.(ON HIATUS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I HAVE TRIED TO POST THIS THREE TIMES NOW SO HOPEFULLY THIS WORKS! Anyways, my computer keeps closing my tab and not saving my draft so I've tried to post this three times already so hopefully the third time's the charm! 
> 
> There is death and an explosion at the end but it is not detailed.

Virgil walked around in the large apartment, Virgil’s four roommates were still asleep seeing as it was early in the morning so it was just Virgil walking around, alone. The apartment had seen better days than today, there were blankets thrown everywhere along with pillows and there were leftover cans from the pop that the five of them had drank. Virgil sighed, they were going to have to clean this up today and either Logan or Patton would tell them to, it did need to be cleaned though. Virgil started cleaning by himself, if he’s up this early might as well be productive, it’s not like they needed to keep the pop cans in the living room or keep the blankets and pillows all thrown around like that. Virgil, frankly, has no idea how he lives with the other four; Logan’s not very emotional, Patton’s sometimes too emotional, Roman’s overdramatic, and Dee’s - well - Dee’s just Dee. Arguments would often break out between Logan and Roman, either because Logan wasn’t being emotional enough during a movie (or some other reason) or because Roman’s ideas were too unrealistic. Arguments would also happen between Roman and Virgil (often because Roman wanted to get his work out there under his real name, but - well - that’ll be explained later and Virgil would much rather not explain it twice) and sometimes even between Logan, Roman, and Virgil. Of course, they always came to some sort of agreement at the end of it, but the arguments did, very often, contain yelling. Things would probably be better if Logan, Roman or Virgil moved out of the apartment but it was better for the five of them to stay together than to be apart. Besides, there was something that brought the five of them together (said thing was also the thing that made it better for the five of them to be together). 

The five of them were all gods; each other a different thing, of course. Roman was the God of Creativity (hence why he always had a lot of ideas and was always fighting with Logan), Logan was the God of Knowledge (and Logic), Patton was the God of Morality, Dee was the God of Truth, and Virgil - well - Virgil didn’t really know what type of god he was. Virgil had just always been there with the other four, not aging with them and being reborn (losing his memories and then getting them back all at once absolutely sucked) as well. During all three of his lives Virgil had never once figured out what kind of god he was; just that he was a god amongst humans. Heck, Virgil hadn’t even known there were other people like him until thirty years ago on his third live when he was eight and he had been in the same kid’s class for twice in a row (different lives). Now, since gods didn’t grown old (the more Virgil thought about it, it was more like they were people who didn’t age that were just good a certain thing, calling themselves gods sounded better than people who didn’t die by old age though) their deaths were painful and usually by unnatural means seeing as they couldn’t die by old age. Virgil had no idea (well, a little bit of an idea but he wasn’t going to tell them that) how many times the others in the house had died and been reborn before meeting Virgil; it wasn’t really a dinner conversation. Besides, no one would walk up to someone and ask how many times they’ve died, that would just be plain rude, even if normal humans could remember their past lives. Virgil liked living with the other four - he was finally not alone for once - and Virgil wouldn’t change it for the world; even if he was offered the chance to actually be immortal if he left his friends. Virgil really hoped it was the same for the others as well, it wasn’t like they couldn’t be reborn (although there was a chance that they would never remember their past lives) and no one would really want to kick their friends out of their life. Virgil liked living with his friends and he did not want to mess that up by saying something wrong to them. 

“Good morning,” Roman walked into the living room, a hand covering his mouth as he yawned, “Emo Nightmare.” Virgil laughed at Roman’s nickname for him, Roman had always come up with the weirdest (yet probably the nicest) nicknames for Virgil. Virgil had lost how many nicknames Roman had actually given him to be honest. “What are you doing up so early?” Roman turned around to look at the clock on the other side of the wall. “It’s - like - six in the morning.” Roman yawned once more.

Virgil laughed. “Maybe if you’re still tired you should go back to bed.” 

Roman shook his head. “Have any idea when Patton gets up? I’m hungry.” Roman collapsed onto the couch across from Virgil. 

Virgil shrugged. “No idea when Patton gets up but if you’re so hungry maybe you should get yourself some food.” 

Roman softly laughed. “I’ll just burn down the kitchen!” Everyone in the apartment knew that it was really only Patton who cooked since no one else seemed to be able to. Like Roman had said, the most they would probably do is burn the kitchen down. 

The two of them sat in silence for a moment before Virgil turned on the TV to some cartoon, it looked interesting so he just left it on that channel. Besides, it would be nice to have some noise as Virgil continued to clean up the living room, he was about more than halfway done now; all there was was to pick up the cans and there was only five of them. While Virgil was cleaning, Roman left and went back to his room but Virgil couldn’t really tell if it was because the dramatic man had gotten an idea (God of Creativity and all) and had to go write it down or because he was going back to bed. Which ever it had been, Virgil would be seeing him later anyways, Patton usually made breakfast at ten and everyone was out of their rooms by then. Roman was good at being creative, probably because he was the God of Creativity and the others seemed to be good at what they were apparently the god of too. Patton was very emotionally helpful and Logan seemed to be more mentally helpful than anything. Dee was just Dee, he was good at telling the truth? That doesn’t really count though. Anyone can tell the truth, although, Dee could only tell the truth. Virgil, just like how he didn’t know what type of ‘god’ he was, also didn’t know what he was particularly good at. Unless worrying over everything counted as a skill. 

Virgil sighed as he looked up at the clock after falling down onto the couch, it was almost nine in the morning; he’s been up for three hours and only got three hours of sleep, great. Everyone else should be waking up soon, the latest anyone really slept in was nine-thirty because Patton made breakfast at ten. The five of them also had jobs, so they had to get out of bed eventually, although, all of their jobs seemed to start around eight in the evening and go till midnight. Virgil didn’t really care about that though, it gave him and the others to continue living in a huge apartment that had enough rooms for each of them to have their own. 

It wasn’t long before Virgil heard Patton (he was always up first unless Virgil woke up during the middle of the night) get up and out of his room; the optimistic man humming as he walked towards the kitchen. Virgil smiled but also found it very weird at how Patton could be so happy during the morning. Probably because Patton was more of a morning person than anything but, really, how could anyone be that happy on a Monday morning? Virgil heard the coffee maker go off in the other room and Patton start to talk to Roman (Mister Creative must’ve left his room) but soon enough Patton and Roman came into the the living room; Patton carrying a mug of coffee and a mug of tea, only to hand the mug of tea to hand one to Virgil. Roman and Patton sat down on the couch beside Virgil, each one of them sipping their coffee (and tea) quietly and slowly. It was a very hot beverage after all. Logan entered the living room with his own cup of coffee muttering a hello as he took a spot in one of the chairs off to the side. Dee was the last to enter with his own cup of tea (both Virgil and Dee couldn’t have coffee) and sat down in the other chair across from Virgil. The couch was big enough to fit all five of them, but some people didn’t like to be too close to others in the morning. 

“I hope everyone slept well,” Dee smiled as he took a sip of his tea; he and Patton seemed to be the only morning people in the apartment. Roman, Logan, and Virgil were always up really late working on whatever they had been working on before they had left for work and before the movie. 

Dee only got mumbled replies from everyone except Patton, him having left before Dee could speak to go make breakfast. Patton seemed to like Dee some days but others he didn’t seem to like the truthful man all that much. Before long, Patton called the four of them into the kitchen to eat breakfast; which, as usual (unless it wasn’t), was eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns. Everyone always seemed to be a good mood after breakfast, almost as if Patton had infused the food with something that made someone happy; either that or they were just happy to have some food in their stomachs. Truth be told, Virgil believed that it had been Patton to make everyone happy since everyone seemed to be able to influence a person’s behaviour, if only by a little. Roman could make one more inspired and Logan could make one more focused, and Dee - well, Dee was just Dee again, he much like Virgil in a sense, not really knowing what was all that special about him other than knowing he could only tell the truth. If Dee knew what he could do, he certainly hadn’t told Virgil anything about it. 

Patton smiled as everyone sat at the small table that was in the corner of their kitchen. “I hope everyone enjoys breakfast!” 

Virgil rolled his eyes and laughed, “When do we not? Patton, you make the best breakfasts.” 

“Aw, thank you, Kiddo!” Virgil laughed once again, Patton had always insisted on calling Virgil ‘Kiddo’ despite not actually knowing how old he was. Well, Virgil was currently thirty-eight, in this life anyways; if you count all the lives he’s had (which are three, currently) he’s lived for ninety years. Virgil wondered if anyone in the room had lived any longer than Virgil had. 

Breakfast went by fast, Patton occasionally sparking up a new conversation to make sure it wasn’t too silent as they ate. If anyone were to think of the five of them as a family, Patton would definitely be the dad; Virgil would probably be the teenaged son that never leaves his room, mostly because Virgil defiantly did that, not the teenaged son thing, the not leaving his room thing unless he really wants to. 

Today was really just a normal day with the apartment full of gods, even if the five of them had all considered it a lazy day other than having to go to work. All that was really needed to make it an official day was there to be an argument. Was it weird that Virgil was just waiting for one to happen? It certainly didn’t seem normal from what happened on TV from what Virgil had seen. Honestly though, if it wasn’t the best that the five of them be spread apart Virgil probably would’ve moved out by now and just stayed in contact with the four of them; some days Virgil couldn’t handle the arguing that went on in the apartment. 

The five of them had all decided to watch cartoons together before they had to go to work, which was is around seven hours so they had plenty of time to watch cartoons. Both Roman and Logan had left periodically throughout the cartoon binge watching session, probably to go write down ideas; though, different in nature from each others, Roman’s were more daydreams were as Logan’s were more on he would build a robot. Other than the shuffling of feet whenever someone had the leave for a bathroom break or snack, it was a quiet day. 

“It is highly unrealistic!” Virgil spoke too fast. Logan was yelling at Roman, probably for one of the creative one’s ideas being too out of this world to actually be real. Virgil sighed, if it wasn’t all three of them or just Roman and Virgil, it was usually those two. 

“It’s not supposed to be realistic,” Roman yelled back at Logan and the sound of tearing was heard, if only a little, “it’s a work of fiction, not a work of nonfiction!” Yep, it was about how Roman’s worlds didn’t make sense in the world of realism or science. If it wasn’t Logan telling Roman that it was too unrealistic it was usually Virgil telling Roman to use a fake name instead of his real one since if - Virgil didn’t really know - one of Roman’s works got so popular that someone would start to question why there was always someone looking exactly like Roman and acting exactly like Roman even if he was supposed to be dead. 

“Every work of fiction has some sort of realism in it!” 

“Can we just say that Roman’s ideas are unrealistic - and that’s a good thing! - and leave it that?” Virgil questioned, yelling back at the two of them. Virgil could only hear a series of mumbles and then both of their doors closing, making Virgil chuckle. Those two could be very childish sometimes, and - if anything - Dee and Patton were the most mature out of the five of them. 

“So, Virgil, what are you going to be doing today other than work?” Patton asked during a commercial break, breaking the silence that had been there after the argument. Virgil was glad that Patton had asked it during a commercial break, Virgil had actually been enjoying the show. 

Virgil shrugged. “Probably the same thing I do everytime I get home from work. Head back to my room and listen to music blasted on my headphones until I fall asleep,” Virgil explained, “unless you want to host another movie night, I’d be up for that.” 

Patton laughed, “We only have movie night once a week, Virgil. And you’re going to kill your eardrums listening to music like that!” Patton scolded Virgil, like Virgil had said before; Patton was both the dad and the most mature of the apartment. 

Dee smiled beside Virgil. “I hope you have fun.” Dee turned to look at the clock, only having four hours left until the five of them all had to go to work. “I think I’m going to call in sick today, I’m not feeling so good.” 

Patton and Virgil blinked at Dee. “I’ve never seen one of us sick before! If you need anything - medication, ginger ale - just let me know and I’ll get it for you!” Patton explained his concern while Virgil just sat there confused. In all the ninety years that Virgil had been alive he had never once gotten sick, so he was slightly confused as to how Dee had gotten sick; Virgil still believed Dee though. 

Dee nodded and stood up. “Thanks Patton, I’m going to head to my room to rest now, my head is killing me.” 

Time passed by quickly and soon enough Virgil had gone and gotten back from work; the clock on the wall flashing a bright green twelve-forty-five. Had it seriously taken him almost an hour to lock up and get back home? Geez, Virgil really needed to pick up the pace at how long it takes for him to lock up if he wanted to get home and say goodnight to everyone. Virgil flicked on the light, earning four groans that came from the living room. Dee, Patton, Roman, and Logan were all huddled up on the couch, blankets draped all over them and pillows in odd places. A movie (Virgil couldn’t tell what one) was playing on the TV screen beside Virgil. 

“I thought we weren’t having another movie night?” Virgil questioned as he walked towards the couch, dropping his keys off as he did. 

Patton hugged Dee closer to him. “I came home to find Dee hunched over the toilet so I decided that if he was going to be forced to stay up because of this I was going to stay up with him. The movie thing just kinda happened,” Patton explained cheerfully. So that was why Dee had a bucket with him. 

Virgil pointed back over to his room. “Mind if I join after I go get changed?” Dee just shook his head in a no. 

Virgil quickly switched out of his work clothes and into his pyjamas (a purple tank top - his sweater over it - and a random pair of black sweats) before heading back to the living room. The light had been turned off once more and the movie had been paused until Virgil had gotten back. Virgil didn’t realize how late it had gotten before Dee left to go get more popcorn - saying that he felt well enough to go do that - it was already two in the morning. How long had they been watching movies for? 

It was taking Dee an awful long time to make more popcorn, so Virgil went to go investigate. Virgil was not expecting the kitchen to be on fire and then explode. How that had happened was a mystery, one that might take a while for Virgil to solve because who knows how long it will take for Virgil to regain his memories. The explosion had killed everyone, god or not, in the apartment.

 

\---

 

The first memory Virgil had in his fourth life was being pushed down in the playground when Virgil was four. All Virgil could really remember from that though was the laugh that sounded very familiar. For some odd reason, that was what jogged Virgil’s missing - ninety years worth of - memories. Oh boy, how fun it was when you’ve lived for ninety years and you’re now a four year. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil's fourth time in a high school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are mentions of the fire/explosion that happened last chapter and mentions of a forest fires, just so you know.

Virgil hated growing up, he had already done it three times so why couldn’t he had just, magically, been an adult as soon as he gotten his memories back? Seriously, it’s annoying having to be a four year that can barely speak and can barely do anything! The most Virgil could do during that time was ask for food, read (thankfully his mind could do that properly), and not doing anything he actually wanted to do; like find where his friends were. Virgil had gone through elementary school without finding a single one of his friends, he couldn’t even find them when he snuck into the back to see if they were in a higher grade or had even been at the school (he had gotten a suspension for a couple of days)! It could be possible that Virgil’s friends just hadn’t been reborn yet (or, something that was more of a pain in the butt, had a different name than Virgil remembered) but Virgil was sure that they had been. From what Virgil remembered the five of them were very similar in age, Dee being the youngest and Logan being the oldest. Of course, it could be different  _ now _ , but Virgil didn’t really want it to be and hoped that it wasn’t. 

Middle school came and went about as fast as elementary school did; and that was very slowly. Sure, they may have changed up what Virgil learned a little but it was very annoying having to learn the same things over, and over, and over again. Virgil actually stopped caring about his grades for a period of time, which earned him getting grounded by his parents (holy crap, he hadn’t had parents in thirty years and boy, was it weird to have them babying him again), but Virgil couldn’t exactly get the stuff right every single time. Last time (his third life) Virgil had done that, it did not end well and everyone hated him because he had actually jumped a grade; it’s not like Virgil asked to remember everything when he was a kid so he could magically get through school faster than others! That was the only time Virgil actually skipped ahead of his peers. Of course, that didn’t stop the many people calling him a nerd because he knew more than them. This time round, Virgil would much rather like to stay in the background of what other people were doing. 

Virgil’s fourth pair of parents were actually nice and wanted him to get good grades, but they weren’t demanding over it and if he failed too much the most they would do was ground him for a week or two. Virgil actually liked them but tried his best not to get too attached because one day they would be dead and Virgil wouldn’t be dead; it was almost like Virgil was a vampire, he never went outside unless the moon was out since he hated the sun. 

There was a knock at Virgil’s door. “Virgil, honey, it’s almost eight. If you wanna be on time for your first day of high school, you might want to get up!” His mother sang as she opened the door. 

Time seemed to move in slow motion, Virgil moving all of his papers of where his friends whereabouts into a drawer in his desk. He couldn’t risk his mum seeing them in case she asked questions; Virgil had never really brought home friends before and seeing papers of the titles mostly consisting of _Where Logan Might Be,_ _Where Roman Might Visit_ and _How Did The Fire Start_ might make his mum think that Virgil was hiding something. Possibly something that wasn’t really all that good since more than one of the titles had explosion and fire in them. 

Virgil groaned, right, he had to go through the pain that is high school all over again. Of course, it was everything his fourth parents said it was, a bit fat smack across the face. Virgil’s fourth parents also said that college would be better than high school was, but Virgil wasn’t really sure he would be going to college. He had only really done that once in his very first life and it just didn’t seem like something Virgil would do again. Of course, Virgil hadn’t been in college for that long in his first life, but even then he didn’t really like college. Virgil leaned back in his chair. “Do I have to go? I’d much rather just stay here and be homeschooled or something like that.” Yes, Virgil would much rather say he was doing his schoolwork and actually be trying to find his friends but his mum didn’t need to know that. At least, not right now; Virgil didn’t think he would ever tell her though. 

Virgil’s mum laughed as she looked around the room and then sighed. “Yes, you need to go, homeschooling is  _ not  _ fun, Virgil. Trust me on that. And what have I said about cleaning your room? It looks like a pig came in and knocked everything over!” His mum picked up a hamper that had - indeed - been knocked on the floor and started to place clothes in it. “There, I’ve started it for you. But back to the homeschooling against high school thing. Virgil, you have no one but your teachers and whoever’s at home with you to talk to. You’ll meet no one your age-” Virgil wanted to laugh at that, so far, no one - even if they were in Virgil’s class - were his age. “-if you’re homeschooled. Don’t you want to make friends?” 

“Not really no,” Virgil answered truthfully, he already had enough friends for his liking. All Virgil really had to do was find them, which is something Virgil would much rather be doing than relearning everything all over again. 

Virgil’s mum walked over to him, bending down slightly to meet his eyes (he was sitting his chair and Virgil’s mum was defiantly taller than him while sitting down). Her hand met his cheek and Virgil wanted to pull away but didn’t, that might also make it look like something was wrong. “Oh, Virgil, you can’t be alone forever.” Virgil’s mum ruffled his hair, standing up straight. “One day, you’ll find someone - or maybe multiple someone’s - that make you happy! And you can’t find them if you don’t want to talk or make friends with anyone!” Oh, but Virgil already had four friends that made him happy, like he’s said many times before to his mum (through his mind, and he was sure his mum wasn’t a mind reader so she didn’t exactly hear him), they were enough for Virgil.

Virgil chuckled and sat up, grabbing his headphones and untangling the mess of wires that they had become. “I’m sure, Mum. Now, can you leave? I kinda have to get dressed.” 

Virgil’s mum laughed. “Alright. But did you get any sleep, your bags are about the size of Mount Everest!” 

Virgil rolled his eyes. “I got a little, now Mum-”

“Virgil, what have I said about getting more than  _ a little  _ bit of sleep. You are a growing man! And you need about eight hours of sleep!” 

“How many hours of sleep did you get while you were in high school?” Virgil already knew the answer, and that was not a lot. His mum - surprisingly - didn’t get much sleep while growing up either. She seemed to be someone who would go to bed on time more than someone who was on their phone chatting with someone or reading something for hours before going to bed. Virgil didn’t do that either, but he was up all night trying to figure out stuff; like what happened that caused the explosion. 

Virgil’s mum groaned in frustration. “Just, promise me that you’ll at least sleep in on the weekends to make up for lost sleep? It’d be better if you can get, at least, eight hours on some days than on no days.”  Virgil’s mum ruffled his hair once more, making the hundred year old teenage have to fix it once more. “Now, get ready, you don’t wanna be late for your first day of highschool.” 

“I was kicking you out of my room so I could get ready!” 

Virgil’s mum laughed. “Alright, if you’re not downstairs in ten minutes I’m coming up here again though.”

“Alright, now leave! Please.” 

Virgil’s mum left the room, laughing at her son as she walked down the stairs. Virgil sighed, it had always been hard to his mum out of his room; she just really liked talking to him. Virgil suspected it was because his mum hadn’t had that good of a relationship with her own parents but, honestly, he didn’t really mind that she talked to him. She kept Virgil company while his friends were off who knows where. 

Virgil quickly got dressed, grabbed whatever backpack he had available (he was pretty sure he still had his very first backpack someone where in his room because it hadn’t gotten wrecked, it just grew too small) that would fit all of the stuff he needed. Which happened to be a lot, and - with the addition of Virgil’s notes on where his friends might be - that made his backpack very heavy. Why couldn’t backpacks just always be on wheels? It would be less stress on whoever was carrying the backpack’s back. Virgil was actually tempted to use a suitcase as his backpack but chose against because he had no idea where he would put it. 

Virgil was downstairs quick enough that his mum hadn’t even needed to step onto the stairs again, which was good for her because Virgil had made an even bigger mess of his room trying to find his backpack. 

Virgil’s mum sighed. “Virgil, are you really going to wear a sweater in this heat? I get that it’s September but it’s hardly any colder than August had been.” Virgil didn’t even know why she kept trying to make him take off his sweater, for the past five years he’s had it, Virgil’s never taken it off. Mostly because it was comfortable but there was the other same explanation; it looked a lot like the one he would wear in the apartment. Just because Virgil’s life had restarted didn’t mean he wanted to completely restart anything, besides, maybe one of his friends will recognize him because of the sweater.

Virgil shrugged. “It’s not that hot, it’s not like I’ll die in it.” 

Virgil’s mum didn’t answer for a moment, instead, she pulled out her phone; probably to check the weather. “Virgil, it’s twenty-three degrees Celsius (seventy-three degrees Fahrenheit) outside! Just because you don’t wear a shirt under your sweater doesn’t mean you won’t get too hot!” 

Virgil pulled down the zipper of his sweater a little, just enough to see the dark purple shirt underneath it. “I’m wearing a shirt. I promise, if I get too hot I’ll take off the sweater.” Of course, Virgil wouldn’t take off the sweater, he would probably just unzip it so he would get less hot. 

Virgil’s mum shook her head. “Fine. Now, come on. It’s our routine that I always drive you to the school for the first day.” Virgil rolled his eyes, smiling at his mum. No matter what school Virgil was going to, his mum always had to drive him. Even if Virgil was starting high school. 

The car ride happened to be very quiet, except for the radio. Virgil hadn’t really paid much attention to what happened or played on the radio, but today just seemed to be the day that Virgil did. After all, Virgil couldn’t exactly listen to his own music since his headphones had broke (he would have to get new ones soon). Virgil didn’t like putting his music on the car radio either, he’d much rather be the only one listening to it; it was really an escape from reality for Virgil and it doesn’t really work all that well if everyone else can hear the music as well. That and his likes of music and his mum’s were complete opposites. 

Anyways, back to what’s on the radio. There had hardly been any rain in the past few weeks, leading to forest fires sprouting up all over the place. The talk about the fire made Virgil realize that he mostly just been focusing on finding his friends more than what had happened that made Virgil have to find his friends; the fire in the kitchen that somehow made an explosion. Virgil was sure that there had been no items that would’ve made the explosion in the kitchen at the time and Virgil wasn’t even sure how the fire had started in the first place. Dee had only been in there for a couple minutes, surely that wasn’t enough time to start a fire in the microwave since Dee was only making more popcorn. So, how had the fire even started in the first place? Sure, Virgil had written down some stuff about the fire but the most he had was that the fire had started because of the stove being on, but no one had been in the kitchen and Patton usually turned off the stove and double checked it just in case he hadn’t. Virgil had already ruled out that the microwave had started it too, that little thing could get hot but not hot enough to start a massive fire that took up all of the kitchen; make smoke maybe, but not start a fire that big. 

The car jerked to a stop, making Virgil be pushed forward a little (thank goodness he was wearing his seatbelt or else that could’ve gone real bad). The light above him had turned yellow unexpectedly and the car in front of him had stopped, making Virgil’s car stop as well. Virgil’s mum sheepishly smiled. “Sorry!” She apologized, “How are you doing, though? You seemed zoned out about something. It’s okay to be nervous about your first day of high school and all though! I’m sure there’ll be someone you can talk to that has the same likes as you!” 

Virgil shrugged, fixing his seatbelt as he did. “I’m sure there is, don’t know if I’ll talk to ‘em but I’m sure there is someone who likes what I like.” Virgil wasn’t really the one to go and talk to someone, only really talking to anyone if they talked to him first. Which people rarely did, Virgil didn’t mind, it meant more time for him to figure out where the heck his friends were. That was his main priority after all and he couldn’t stop thinking about it. 

Virgil’s mum frowned as the car started to move once more. She didn’t exactly say anything but she seemed sad that Virgil didn’t really want to make friends. 

Virgil - apparently - had had a friend once in this lifetime, of course, it just so happened that that was before he had gotten his memories back. So, he didn’t really remember what friend this was, Virgil’s mum had told him that they had been in preschool together and kindergarten but had split up around grade one. Virgil barely remembered him - curse the small brain of a four year old - so he couldn’t exactly tell if it had been one of his friends from the apartment or not. 

Virgil saw the school come into view, it was right beside an elementary/middle school so he saw that too (it wasn’t the school he had gone to though), and sat up in his seat. There were so many people there, of course there was, it was a high school that three schools had sent kids to; the school across the street, Virgil’s old school, and another school that Virgil didn’t know the name of. 

His mum parked in front of the school, since she would only be dropping him off. “Have fun, Virgil!” Virgil only nodded before watching his mum speed off to work. 

Virgil took in a breath as he looked up at the school, it hadn’t changed from the last time Virgil had seen it in May; he suspected that the renovations to it were done though. Virgil had only been to the school twice, once to look around and once to get help choosing his options and all that fun stuff. Virgil hadn’t really chosen options that would benefit what he would want to do later on in his life (seeing as he didn’t know what he would do after he found his friends) and mostly just chose ones that Roman, Patton, and Logan would most likely do. Roman had always liked theatre so Virgil had chosen drama as one and Logan had done a lot of technical stuff from what Virgil remembered so he chose one of the technology options as well. Virgil hadn’t known what Patton would most likely choose so he just chose foods as his last option seeing as Virgil was allowed three because he had picked to have gym every other day; besides, if he didn’t find his friends until after high school, Virgil was mostly likely going to have to cook for himself. 

Virgil had already stopped off at the office to get his schedule and his locker number, as well as a map, so he was on his way to his locker. Virgil hadn’t really brought anything to style his locker with so it would mostly be very bland inside, it didn’t really matter though. Virgil didn’t really need to style his locker anyways, it was just a waste of time that he could be doing trying to find his friends.

Virgil stopped in the middle of the hallway, right beside where Virgil assumed his locker was was a group of three people. Two had glasses and one was wearing a red short sleeved hoodie; but that wasn’t what caught Virgil’s eyes. He knew those faces. Roman, Patton, and Logan were going to Virgil’s high school. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil makes some lists.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mentions of murderers, bullies, and what has gone down in the first chapter but not in detail.

The three of them must’ve gone to a different school than Virgil had; that was really the only explanation. Virgil hadn’t seen them at all while he was at school and even when he had checked the records he hadn’t seen the three of them in them, not even from the pictures. Virgil had never seen pictures of the three of them when they were younger but Virgil was pretty sure he would know that they were his friends. What if the three of them remembered and had found each other easily because they went to the same school? Why had they never tried to find Virgil if that was the case? Did they not care about Virgil? Or Dee by the looks of things, he didn’t seem to be in their little group either.

Virgil took his eyes away from Roman, Patton, and Logan, heading to his locker with his head down. It was possible that they had just become friends due to the fact that the three of them had all gone to the same school together and that they didn’t remember; and if they didn’t, Virgil did not want to look like the creep who stares at people. Virgil was right about his locker being right next to where the three of them were standing, it was right next to where Roman was leaning; which Virgil suspected was Roman’s locker, or one of the other two’s.

“Hey, locker neighbour!” Patton’s cheery voice make Virgil look up from the ground, Patton had moved more towards Virgil and Roman. Patton held his hand out. “My name’s Patton, I hope we can be really good friends!”

Logan sighed behind Roman. “Patton, not everyone will want to be your friend.”

Patton frowned as he turned around to look at Logan. “You’re my friend! And I just met you today, so I say that I can make friends with everyone!” Patton had always been the most optimistic about things.

Roman smiled slightly. “I say that you follow that dream and make friends with everybody in the school, Patton. You might as well start with these two!” Roman came close second about being the most optimistic, though, he seemed to be talking to Patton as if Logan and Virgil weren’t present. Roman turned to face Virgil. “My name is Roman, it is nice to meet you. Even if you look all gloomy.”

Patton smacked Roman’s arm, Virgil could tell it wasn’t very hard though. “Roman, that wasn’t very nice, apologize!”

From what Virgil could tell, they didn’t remember anything about meeting Virgil before around forty years ago. Virgil was sure that Patton didn’t even remember meeting Logan from whenever they had met (they had been together when Virgil had run into them). That, kind of, hurt, Virgil didn’t like that his friends - the people he had spent thirty years with - were acting like he was a stranger. Well, Virgil was just going to try to figure some way to get their memories back, that would be his new task. As well as trying to figure out more about what happened to make the apartment explode. And trying to find Dee.  

“I - uh - the name’s Virgil.” Why was Virgil so nervous? Sure, they were his friends but - technically - Virgil hadn’t even met them yet. Oh. He was afraid of messing something up, making it so Roman, Patton, and Logan didn’t like him. Which would make it near impossible for Virgil to help them regain their memories.

Patton smiled brightly at Virgil. “I like your name! It’s sounds really cool!” That had been the exact same thing that Patton had said when Virgil had first given his name, guess some things never change. “What classes do you have? Maybe we’re in some of the same ones!”

Virgil fished out his schedule from his pocket. Of course, it was only the first semester so Virgil didn’t have all of the options he had picked yet, but he did have drama and foods today. Obviously, the technology one was on B days, whatever those were, Virgil was thoroughly confused about those. Why hadn’t they just kept the same schedule that Virgil had when he went to high school? Actually, no, this one seems way better, less classes to keep track of each day.  Wait, wasn’t he allowed to pick four if he picked the every other day gym? Crap, he must’ve said yes to having a free period or something because gym was every other day on his schedule. “I have drama and foods as my options for A, and some Media Studies and gym for B. My guess is that if we were to be in any classes, those would be the ones.” Okay, that was good, Virgil hadn’t stuttered that time.

“Forgive me, but you don’t really peg me as someone who enjoys theatre or drama,” Roman admitted, “You seem more of someone who would much rather enjoy something dark and mysterious, like writing dark and mysterious poems!”

“Roman!” Patton yelled out earning a small sorry from the taller guy beside him. Patton turned back and smiled at Virgil (Patton seemed to be doing that a lot). “We have foods together, isn’t that great? Oh, we’ll have so much fun!” Virgil couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh at Patton’s cheerfulness. Honestly, the guy was just very cheerful and always wanted to do the right thing all the time; which wasn’t really bad, it was just something you didn’t seem everyday.

Virgil nodded. “Yeah - uh - yeah, that sounds like fun.” Logan had been the only one to not really say what he had. “What do you have, Logan?” Virgil paused, had Logan even told Virgil his name?

Logan fixed his glasses, staring at Virgil with a look of slight confusion. “How did you know my name? I haven’t even told these two it yet.” Crap. Crap. Crap. Virgil slipped up badly. “Did we go to the same school? I don’t remember seeing you in any of my classes or even in the hallways.” Logan hadn’t even gone to Virgil’s school since Virgil didn’t see him there either, unless they were both very blind to what’s right in front of them. How was Virgil supposed to react to this? He just gave away that he knew Logan’s name without even asking the logical man. What the heck is Virgil supposed to say?

Virgil looked around them, trying to find anything that had Logan’s name on it. Nothing; there was absolutely nothing with Logan’s name on it. Virgil couldn’t exactly go out right and tell them that he knew them from before he died, that would just make him sound insane or something! Crap, what was Virgil supposed to say?

Patton chuckled (it was more a giggle really) beside Virgil. “It’s on your lunch!” Patton pointed out, slightly pointing to Logan’s paper bag lunch that clearly had his name in blue letters on it.

Logan pulled up the lunch to his eyes. “Ah, I guess it is.” He lowered it and looked at Virgil. “I would prefer it if you did not read my belongings though.”

Virgil lowered his head. “Sorry,” He mumbled. Well, that could’ve gone better. Oh, why couldn’t Virgil have thought of something else to say? Like that Virgil just blended into the crowd in Logan’s old school and Virgil had never really introduced himself before? No, that wouldn’t have worked, Logan’s school surely would’ve had partners at some point and when Virgil’s name didn’t appear on that board (or popsicle sticks, Virgil had no idea what the school Logan had gone to had done to choose partners), Logan would be able to tell that Virgil wasn’t in his class.

There was a nice sounding bell that rang off, indicating that people had to get to class. Virgil was glad that they had switched out the shrill bell for whatever the nice sounding bells were; he had hated that bell that made people jump out of their skin. Well, Virgil still wished that he had more time than he did - since Virgil had yet to put his stuff in his locker - to get the things he needed for his next class from his locker and all that. Virgil sighed as he heard Patton say goodbye and head off to his class (Virgil suspected their had homeroom together but he wasn’t about to say anything about it), Roman - and Logan soon after - following along with Patton. Virgil just stared off at the exit near the end of the hallway; it wasn’t like he didn’t have any time left, he had some, not a lot but some.

Virgil entered the loud classroom after wandering the halls searching for it for about five minutes. There were kids (compared to Virgil, they were kids) sitting backwards on chairs to talk to their friends, a whole lot of people on their phones, Logan (Virgil was pretty sure it was Logan) was reading what seemed to be a textbook, and Patton and Roman were chatting about something while sitting on their chairs sideways. Virgil had not missed how loud a classroom was before the teacher came in. Virgil quickly found a seat and pulled out an blank sheet of paper (where had that come from, Virgil was sure that all of the paper he had had something on it). First things first, Virgil was going to have to make a list on how and what to do to try to get his friends back, and also how to find Dee. It would probably be a lot faster to find Dee when all of them remembered and could help though.

Virgil started to write his list, starting off with Patton.

 

_PATTON_

  * __Relive old memories?__


  * ~~_Puppies? Patton’s always wanted a dog_~~


  * _Do good around him?_



 

“Whatcha writing?” Patton questioned as he walked up beside Virgil’s desk, a curious look on his face. Virgil quickly covered his work with his arms. “It’s fine if you don’t wanna tell me! It just looked like you were really into it because you hadn’t looked up or anything!” Why was Patton talking to Virgil so much? It seemed Patton and Roman were friends, so why not go hang out and talk with Roman? Oh wait, that wasn’t like Patton, he always wanted to make friends with everyone. How could Virgil have forgotten? Wait, does Patton remember? Is that why he’s trying to become Virgil’s friend more than anyone else? Or is it just because Virgil looked lonely?

Virgil cleared his throat, there’s only one way to see. “I don’t mind.” Really, if anything Patton should know the story even if he doesn’t remember. Patton’s going to figure out he can’t die a natural death sooner or later. Patton nodded for Virgil to continue. “It’s about these people, they’re called gods but really aren’t - more like people who can’t die a natural death but have this skill they’re really good at, like logical things, or theatre, or making others happy - and this explosion went off in the apartment they lived in. Now, the people don’t really die per say, they just get reborn and lose their memories in the process, One of them remembers what happens at an early age and tries to find his friends and that’s all I have so far.” Virgil really hoped he had explained it properly and didn’t make Patton confused about anything.

Patton frowned. “I feel bad for the guy who remembers, having to try to find his friends on his own for who knows long.” Oh. Well, that solves the question if Patton remembered. Patton surely would’ve jumped up and down and hugged Virgil exclaiming that he remembered everything and Virgil wasn’t alone anymore. “I wanna give him a hug!” Patton looked hopefully towards Virgil. “Does it, at least, have a happy ending?”

Virgil nodded. “But if I tell you what happens that would be spoiling it, and I don’t wanna do that in case you ever what to read it.” That and Virgil didn’t know the ending so he didn’t exactly know if it was a good ending or not. Hopefully the end of Virgil’s story did have a good ending. Patton probably would never read it though, just because it had happy ending didn’t mean the in between parts were at all happy. Virgil knew for a fact that if he were to write everything about what’s happened to him, including his previous lives other than the third one, there would be bullies and murderers (thank goodness he hadn’t run into one of those since his first life). Patton defiantly wouldn’t read that.

“I’d love to read it! I’ll await the day you finish it so I’m able to read it in all its glory!” Patton announced. “I’m sure Roman would love to read it too! If you don’t mind, am I allowed to tell him about it?” Maybe Roman knew? Virgil nodded his head and Patton ran off back to his desk to tell Roman about Virgil’s ‘story’.

Virgil went back to his list, this time going for Roman. Maybe the more dramatic one would be easier.

 

_ROMAN_

  * __Write a play for him to act about what happened? Roman did want to get into musicals and all that__


  * _Same for Patton; relive old memories? Most importantly the ones with us working together and not arguing_


  * _Talk to him about how he’s always so creative and ask for some tips? Maybe for said ‘book’ I’m writing, ask how he would get others memories back and how he would go about it_



 

Nope. This was nowhere near easy. This seemed a lot tougher than Virgil would’ve thought. Virgil didn’t have any clue as to how he had gotten his own memories back so that limited his knowledge on how to get the others’ memories back. Virgil groaned and banged his head on his desk. So far, Virgil had only gotten a couple of ways each for two people and Virgil had no idea how he was supposed to get Logan’s memories back. Seriously, why is it so hard to think of ways to get someone’s memories back? Virgil banged his head against his desk once more.

“You know, Hot Topic, that’s not a good thing to do.” Virgil turned his head to look up at Roman who was now beside Virgil’s desk. What was this, bug Virgil while he tries to figure out how to get your memories back hour? Wait, what had Roman called Virgil?

Virgil smirked slightly, he didn’t know exactly what Roman had called him but he did know it had hot in it. “Aw, you think I’m hot.” Better to make Roman think Virgil was joking around rather than not really knowing what he was talking about; Virgil was pretty sure it was a store that Virgil had actually gone and bought stuff from (he had gotten his sweater from there) a couple of times.

Roman groaned. “That is not what I meant.” Virgil chuckled. “Anyways, Patton told me that you were writing a book. I’m intrigued, what is this book I’ve heard about?” So, Virgil explained the beginning of the book once more; hopefully he wouldn’t have to again since Virgil didn’t feel like repeating himself again. “It sounds very...interesting.”

“It sounds unrealistic,” Logan pointed out from behind Virgil. Huh, Virgil hadn’t even noticed that he had sat in front of Logan.

Virgil rolled his eyes. “It’s got some realism in it, they all die from the explosion.” Oh, wow, Virgil was really going to say what Roman had said to that. “Besides, it’s a work of fiction-” It really wasn’t. “-not nonfiction.”

Logan titled his head to the side slightly almost as if he was nodding. “I’ll give you that.” Wow, guess Logan just really liked to argue with Roman. Virgil wanted to laugh but he didn’t think right now was the proper moment for that.

Roman huffed, it didn’t seem like he liked Logan all that much, and went back to sit down beside Patton. Virgil took a look at his list right more before writing Logan’s name beside Roman’s.

 

_LOGAN_

  * __Debating things? It was mostly Logan and I who did that whereas Logan and Roman would argue__


  * _Same with Patton and Roman; relive old memories?_



 

Really, why did Logan have to be so difficult? Of course, Virgil could always ask the best way to make someone remember something that they had forgotten, say it’s for the book to make it more realistic. Virgil quickly wrote that down on the piece of paper as well; he’s going to have to get a notebook or something for this if he’s going to want to keep all of it organized.

The bell rang once more - had it already been twenty minutes? - and the teacher walked into the class. After everyone settled down (which was a good thing since Virgil’s ears felt like they were going to fall off from all of the talking) the teacher - Virgil hadn’t bothered to remember their name since he didn’t have any classes with them - started to do roll call.

“- Deceit?” Virgil’s eyes widened, that sounded an awful lot like Dee. Virgil also didn’t really know if their names could change from their past lives, he’s only ever been Virgil and only known the others since his third life. Virgil couldn’t find whoever had answered the teacher.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized that these chapters seem a bit boring. I swear things will pick up after the first day. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which it's October and Virgil barely remembers what went down in September.

The beginning of the day mostly went by in a blur. Virgil was really only anticipating the last two blocks of the day; seeing as they happened to be the places were Virgil was able to get into the options. Sure, on B days, whatever the technology class was called was in the middle of the day before lunch, but foods and drama were the last two classes on A days. Virgil still didn’t get the A and B days meant but he suspected that the classes alternated. Virgil was glad he knew everything that had talked about in the classes or else he might not be able to graduate high school. Not that Virgil really wanted to - it would be nice if he did - but if Virgil didn’t graduate high school that would be fine. Of course, that didn’t mean Virgil was able to skip doing work in and out of class. He still had to go through the horror called homework. 

Virgil sighed as he walked towards the drama classroom, it was right next to the cafeteria so that was a good thing. When Virgil walked in, he saw Roman casually talking to someone. Virgil wanted to go up and talk to Roman, see if he would be able to remember anything, but Virgil was too nervous. He didn’t want to mess up his chance to get his friends back because he seemed like a creep.  Besides, if Roman remembered anything he would’ve told Virgil because of the wonderful ‘story’ Virgil was making was obviously what happened in the apartment. Virgil just went and sat down on a bench to the side of door, pulling out his phone (he was glad his mum had gotten him one before he got to high school, it was so much easier than just writing things down on paper because of the calendar on the phone) to just scroll around on social media sites while he waited for the teacher - whoever that was - to come in. 

Virgil was halfway done scrolling through whatever social media site was very blue (he hadn’t really paid attention to the names of things really) when the teacher - a nice looking man with a bright smile - walked in with a clipboard. “Hello, class! My name is Mr. Simons and I’ll be your drama teacher for the majority of the year! Now, how about we start with introductions; we’ll all say our names and then something we like?” Mr. Simons seemed a little bit too cheerful to be working with - around - forty teenagers. He must be new to this or something because it didn’t seem like anyone, not even the older kids, knew who he was. Mr. Simons cleared his throat. “I’ll even go first. My name is Mr. Simons and I enjoy this new job of mine!” 

“What is this? Kindergarten?” Someone questioned, making the rest of the class - minus Virgil and Roman - laugh. 

Roman huffed. “I happen to think that this is a lovely way of all of us getting to know each other, seeing as we’ll all be in the same class. I’ll even go next! My name is Roman and I adore theatre!”

Roman seemed to have made everyone think that this wasn’t dumb because soon enough more people were doing it. Virgil had heard plenty of things that people had liked, but some of the ones he heard in the class were new; he swore he heard one kid say he liked to collect shoes, they don’t have to be new or his size, just shoes that look to be in good condition or look cool. Soon enough though, it was only Virgil who hadn’t said anything. 

Virgil took in a breath. “Name’s Virgil and I like-” Crap, what was he supposed to say he liked? Looking for his friends? Trying to figure out what had happened in the apartment? “Writing, I guess.” That could work, technically his life was what he was writing so he could just say that. Besides trying to figure out how to get everyone’s memories back, Virgil didn’t really do anything else; that’s kinda sad. Virgil had liked hanging out with the others during a movie night or board game night (they were pretty often, more so than movie nights) but he couldn’t exactly do that now. 

Mr. Simons clapped his hands together. “Great, now that everybody knows each other, let’s do some trust exercises! Today’ll just be a day where we get to know each other more than anything really to do with drama. We’ll be doing improvisation on Wednesday though!” Mr. Simons waved his hands around the room. “Everybody pair up! We happen to have an even number of students so everyone should have someone!” 

Everybody did, indeed, pair up with someone. Except for Virgil and Roman, leaving them to be the last two people. Of course, everyone else probably had a friend join them or had done this class before with someone and had made friends with them during their time last year. Virgil and Roman were the only ones who didn’t really know anybody in the class, so, they had to be put together. Great. The two of them had decided to do the most known trust exercise, the trust fall. Roman had decided he wanted to alternate between the two of them, with himself going first. Of course, Roman had bent his knees, seeing has Roman didn’t known Virgil as much as Virgil knew Roman; though, Virgil only really knew the previous life Roman had lived, he may be different this time round seeing as he hasn’t gotten his memories back. Next was Virgil’s tune and he just fell.

“You must trust pretty easily,” Roman pointed out as he helped Virgil from the fall he had. 

“Not really.” It was true, it had taken Virgil years to really trust Roman and the others. Virgil had mostly kept to himself and his room during those three years. 

“Then why do you trust me? We just met today.” Virgil only shrugged. It’s not like Virgil could really tell Roman the truth, he would probably be freaked out. If someone walked up to Virgil saying that they knew him from a previous life and had become really good friends with him Virgil would say that that person was crazy, if he hadn’t gone through the same thing himself that is. 

The rest of the class was mostly just them switching up partners every few minutes and so the class flew by as quickly as it had come for Virgil. The one hundred year old man - who was stuck in a fifteen year olds’ body - mostly just thinking of more ways to get his friends memories back. That was mostly everything Virgil was thinking about nowadays (well, it had only been a couple of hours but it was most likely going to be stuck in Virgil’s mind for days until he figured out enough ways). 

The rest of the day flew by just as fast, seeing as - for some odd reason - Patton wasn’t in foods with Virgil. In fact, Virgil hadn’t even noticed that two months went by until the leaves had fallen down for the first time. How had it already become October and Virgil not even notice it? Had he even talked to Patton, Roman, and Logan since the first day of school? Did they even remember Virgil exists - probably, they are locker buddies after all. Sure, Virgil was really only focusing on trying to figure out ways to get his friends’ memories back but that didn’t mean that he had lost that much time! 

Virgil peeked out his window, surely a full month hadn’t gone by so quickly. The leaves still slowly falling down from the trees and Halloween decorations all put up minus a random house here and there. It was October and Virgil barely even remembered going through September. Virgil sat back in his chair, staring up at his ceiling. He hadn’t gotten any closer to figuring out how to get his friends’ memories back and now that Virgil knew where they were he wanted to get those memories back as soon as possible. 

“Virgil?” His mum’s voice was muffled through the door. “Sweetheart, what are you doing up? It’s three am on a school night. I get that you’re a teenager now but even you need sleep.” 

Virgil looked around for his digital clock, it was three in the morning. How had he not even noticed that it was dark outside when he had looked. “Sorry, Mum, I’ll go to bed soon.” 

There was, what sounded like, a yawn. “Okay. Night, Virgil, love you.” Virgil didn’t say it back. 

Virgil looked down at what he was doing, it just looked like a bunch of little doodles on the paper that had the lists for how to get his friends memories back. Had he not even thought of anymore ideas on how to get anyone’s memories back? Talk about being unproductive! Virgil groaned when he noticed there were a whole lot of things crossed and scribbled out beyond recognition. There could’ve been something good there and Virgil didn’t even remember what it was he had crossed out. 

Deciding he didn’t want to give himself even more of a headache, Virgil left his chair and flopped down into his bed. Hopefully the morning would bring something good. 

 

**\---**

 

The morning brought Virgil nothing good. First, he didn’t wake up to his alarm meaning he got up late and missed the bus so he had to get a ride with his mum; second, no one was even by their lockers when Virgil was there, which probably meant that he was late; third, Virgil was, indeed, late. Lunch wasn’t even over yet and Virgil seemed to be having the worst day ever. Who knew that blanking out for an entire month would make the day you come back so stressful? 

Virgil sat at a table, he was really the only one there as well. Virgil didn’t mind, just meant that nobody would look over his shoulder to see what he was writing. After seeing what the page had become in a month, Virgil decided to rewrite it all down and make it neater, seeing as some of the crossed out bits were slightly readable, even if it was only some words; Virgil could always guess what the rest of the sentence was anyways. So far he had five ways for each of the people who Virgil knew where they were, so Patton, Logan, and Roman. Virgil still had no idea where Dee could be and Virgil hadn’t met anyone else in the school so Virgil had no idea if Dee even went to the same school as Virgil or not. Virgil sighed for what seemed like the tenth time that day and stared at the slightly crumpled piece of paper his hand was currently resting on, even in a month he had gotten no farther than only a few ideas. 

“Virgil!” Patton exclaimed from behind Virgil, making the troubled man turn around. “Mind if I sit with you? Roman will probably be joining as well if that’s not a problem.” 

Virgil shrugged. “I don’t really mind.” That just meant he had to do a better job at hiding the names on the paper from Patton and Roman. Either that or Virgil could lie and say he came up with the names before he met the three of them and just kept them because Virgil liked them. 

Patton smiled. “Great!” Patton chose to sit across from Virgil, setting his lunch down in front of himself. “You’ve looked gloomy these past few days so I thought I could come talk to you to see if I could help cheer you up!” 

Virgil had looked gloomy? Well, he had been distracted from reality to even notice that September had passed. “Sorry, I was a bit detached from reality. Bit too excited to write the book, you know? Having a little bit of trouble now though.” Patton could possible help, he was one of the ones that Virgil was trying to figure out how to get a whole lot of memories back to. 

Patton sent Virgil a questioning look that Virgil couldn’t really tell what emotion it was. It looked bit like confusion and concern? “With what? Maybe I can help! If you don’t mind me helping that is.” 

Virgil shook his head and tapped the pen to the side of his head. “I’m trying to figure out ways to make the people who lost their memories remember without waiting years for it. That’s all,” Virgil explained, making sure that the three names (which were over the paper multiple times) were covered. Oh boy, if Patton (or anyone for that matter) were to see the notes written on the page it would be very hard to explain that Virgil was not a stalker seeing as there were somethings that Patton (and the others) liked to do that he hadn’t told Virgil personality; this time round, at least. 

“Well, what made them lose their memories in the first place?”

“Death.”

“Oh.” Patton didn’t seem to be expecting that, it seemed that he had forgotten what Virgil’s ‘book’ was about in the time that they hadn’t talked to each other. “Well, what if you put them in a near-death experience? It’s not the best thing to do but it might work? I’m not the best at technical things like that, I’d say go to Logan if you want more realism but if you want more out there ideas to go to Roman.” Near-death experience? That was a quick nope, Virgil was not putting his friends through that. Just because Virgil wanted their memories back as soon as possible did not mean he was going to risk them dying again.

Virgil hummed in response to what Patton had said. “You and Logan still friends? Or are friends now at least?” 

Patton nodded. “It’s mostly just Logan and I that hang out together though, Roman and Logan usually end up fighting if they’re in the same room together for too long,” Patton sighed. 

“Why don’t you try getting them to do something that uses both or neither of their strengths? Like mini golf or something.” The five of them had gone mini golfing once and it didn’t end up with Roman and Logan fighting. Dee said he didn’t like it much though so they didn’t do it ever again but Virgil had heard from the other three that they had liked it. Hopefully if Logan, Patton, and Roman did go it would go the same way it had with the five of them. 

Patton excitedly gasped. “That’s a great idea! The four of us could go play mini golf together on Saturday!” 

“Four?” 

“Oh - um - I probably should ask if you want to join us before saying that, huh?” Patton questioned, “It’s just, you look so lonely so I thought I’d invite you to join us. If the Roman and Logan even want to come, that is.” 

Virgil gave Patton a small smile. “I’d love to join you.” Maybe making friends with Patton, Roman, and Logan would be easier than Virgil had thought it would be. 

“Great!” Patton cheered, “Oh, Roman, over here!” He waved his hand above his head to get the attention of his friend. 

 

**\---**

 

Virgil walked into his house with a smile on his face, even if he hadn’t gotten any closer to getting their memories back Virgil had gotten closer to becoming friends with Logan, Patton, and Roman. Just because they didn’t remember Virgil didn’t mean they couldn’t make new memories with him. Even if Patton, Logan, and Roman never remembered anything that had happened in their last life they could still make new memories in this one and when they figure out that they can’t really die Virgil will explain everything. Virgil’s never really seen if they get old or not though, he hasn’t gotten past forty. Wow, fate (or whatever is allowing Virgil to have these types of things happen) really doesn’t like Virgil living a long life.  

“Virgil are you home?” Virgil’s mum called from upstairs. 

Virgil chuckled. “Yeah. Hey Mum, do you we have anything planned for Saturday?” 

“No, not really, why? Do you have a date?” 

“What? No!” Virgil quickly said, “I’m just going to go hang out with some friends is all.” That was all Virgil was going to do, he wasn’t going to try to figure out ways to get their memories back at all during their outing. It was going to be a day where Virgil could relax and not have to worry about them not liking him, Patton cleared that up for Virgil already. 

“Oh, that’s just as good!” Virgil’s mum cheered making Virgil smile even more than he already was. “By the way, one of my friends’ needs someone to watch their kid for the month since they’re going out on a business trip that they can’t get out of. They would just leave him home but he’s proven that he can’t be left home alone because he forgets to eat since he gets all caught up in his work.”  

“Alright, I’m gonna go do my homework now!” Virgil walked into his room, shutting the door quietly. Sighing, Virgil sat down on his chair. He didn’t have homework - seeing as no one really gave homework until Friday - so Virgil was just going to try to figure out what he could possibly do with Logan, Patton, and Roman that might help get their memories back. There was always movies, everyone had liked doing that, except Dee. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted Mr. Simons to be Thomas at the beginning but I didn't want him to be too out of character so I changed it, I'm still a bit scared to actually write real people XD
> 
> The whole time skip thing was because I didn't want day one to drag on for too long (seeing as it's already taken up two whole chapters) and I wanted to get the plot moving more. There's probably going to be a couple of large timeskips (or many small ones, haven't decided yet) so the whole thing doesn't take place in the span of a month or two. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Virgil has a movie night with the others. (There's also a lotta short time skips)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Virgil does have a panic attack (that I really hope I wrote right) and it does mention the events that happened in chapter one (the fire and the explosion).

Virgil woke up early on Thursday to the smell of breakfast, his mum must not start work early in the morning today. Usually, Virgil just had cereal or toast for breakfast seeing as he woke up late most days; too late to actually make something big like bacon and eggs or pancakes (toasted waffles were fine though). Virgil yawned as he walked into the kitchen, his mum was - indeed - cooking some breakfast, though, it was just pancakes. Virgil’s mum wasn’t really the best cook, it was mostly his dad who cooked anyways but he wasn’t really here seeing as he was a business trip that lasted six months. It was mostly take out and microwaveable dinners lately, with some soggy chicken some nights. That wasn’t what surprised Virgil though; there - sitting at the breakfast bar or whatever the counter is called that can have stools under it and work as a table - was Logan. Logan was just sitting there, sipping orange juice out of a cup as Virgil’s mum hummed as she flipped pancakes. 

“Virgil! You’re awake, good!” Virgil’s mum cheered as she turned around to place a pancake on a plate (which happened to have a good stack of pancakes on it already). She smiled as she looked between Logan and Virgil. “I don’t know if you remember, Virgil, but this is your childhood friend who moved away before grade one! I kept in touch with his parents over the years and they asked me to watch him since he forgets to feed himself.” Virgil had already heard this on Monday, when he finally came back to reality, but he hadn’t thought it would be Logan would be staying over for a couple of months (how many was it again? Two? Three? Was it even more than one?). 

Logan twisted the stool around. “Ah, aren’t you one of the people that Patton has told me is coming with us on Saturday?” It didn’t surprise Virgil that Logan had forgotten him, it had been a month since Virgil properly talked to Logan after all. Though, Logan didn’t seem to be the type to forget something, unless it was just facts that he didn’t forget. 

Virgil’s mum squealed, “You two know each other from high school? I had no idea about that! Virgil, why didn’t you tell me?” 

Virgil blinked in confusion. How had Logan asking if Virgil knew Patton mean the same thing as saying that Logan and Virgil went to the same school? Virgil just shook his head. “I didn’t really know it was Logan - uh - you know, the person I knew who I was younger and all that, of course I knew it was Logan and - I - we share the same locker thing? You know, the same line of lockers, we’re, like, neighbours in that. I didn’t really think to tell you about ‘im, because I didn’t know I knew him from before I went to high school?” Oh gosh, hopefully that did not sound as bad as it sounded to Virgil. That sentence did not make any sense both in and out of Virgil’s head. Oh, why did he say it? Logan probably thinks of Virgil as some person who has a crush on Logan since it’s supposedly a thing that when someone likes someone they get all embarrassed and flustered around their crush. Virgil did not like Logan that way, more in a very good friend kind of way; although Logan didn’t know that and probably didn’t think that way of Virgil. 

“Oh.” Virgil’s mum sounded disappointed but kept on smiling. “Well, sit down! There’s plenty of pancakes to go around!” Virgil nodded and got himself a glass of orange juice before sitting down beside Logan. Oh boy, trying to hide Virgil’s notes was going to be a lot harder now that Logan was here. If it was just Virgil’s mum he could pass it off as characters of a book but with Logan - who knows everyone in said ‘book’ - it would be much harder. 

Virgil only mentally groaned. 

 

**\---**

 

Apparently, Logan’s parents’ business trip was extended, making it three months that Logan had to stay with Virgil. Seriously, it had already been two weeks with Logan living at Virgil’s house and it was already getting difficult to find hiding places for Virgil’s notes. Sure, Logan hadn’t entered Virgil’s room yet but Virgil didn’t want to take the chance that Logan would enter and see a whole lot of notes about himself. 

Virgil pulled his knees closer to his chest, minimizing the amount of space he took up on Patton’s couch. After the mini golf trip that the four of them had gone on, Patton decided that they all needed to spend more time together; Virgil had suggested movie nights, which also ended in everyone staying over at someone’s house. Everyone (including Logan) had agreed that it was a good idea for them to host weekly movie nights, either at Patton’s or Roman’s - seeing as they had the most movies, which happened to be mostly Disney movies. The four of them were currently watching Mulan, Patton had chosen it - it being Patton’s turn and all since they decided to alternate who chose the movie every week. Next week it was Logan’s turn and then Virgil’s. 

The four of them were halfway through the movie when Patton decided they needed more popcorn and decided to head into the kitchen. Virgil’s mind flashed back to the last time one of his friends had gone to get popcorn and rushed off to follow Patton; Virgil did not want that happening again. 

Patton turned around with a bowl of popcorn in his hands, nearly dropping it from being surprised by Virgil. “Woah, Kiddo, don’t do that!” Patton cheerfully scolded (it was more playful than anything really). “Do you need anything? You could’ve told me if you do, you didn’t have to get up.” Virgil’s voice got caught in his throat, preventing him from saying anything. Be it an accidental confession to what had happened in the kitchen of the apartment or any kind of speech that would provide an explanation as to why Virgil had followed Patton into the kitchen. Patton sent Virgil a concerned look. “Virgil, are you okay?” Virgil did not feel okay. 

Virgil really did not feel okay. Patton was okay but Virgil hadn’t known that until he had turned around, no flames behind Patton. There were no flames, no explosions. Everything was fine. That was good. That was really good. But it could still happened. The stove could set on fire any moment and something in the kitchen could be flammable and could set off an explosion and that could kill everyone in the house. Everything would reset again and Virgil might not even remember it that time around. Virgil might not remember his friends again. No. No! That couldn’t happen, Virgil couldn’t let it. Virgil  _ wouldn’t  _ let it. 

Virgil felt someone gently put their hands on his shoulders - when had his eyesight gone blurry? Virgil felt himself slowly being turned around, away from the kitchen and towards where the living room was. Had the living room always been across from the kitchen? No, it was usually between Roman’s room and the kitchen on the other side of that, wasn’t it? Wait, no, this wasn’t the apartment; this was Patton’s place. When had Patton moved out? No, that was wrong, Patton hadn’t moved out. Everything had reset, no one remembered what happened in the kitchen except for Virgil. Oh gosh, everything had reset and no one remembered except Virgil. How had they found each other again? Did any- no, Virgil’s already remembered that no one else remember. But then how did-

“Virgil, hey, you’ve left the kitchen. You’re away from the kitchen and nothing can hurt you in the living room, okay?” That was Patton, that was defiantly Patton. Or was it Roman? No, it was Patton. Roman couldn’t speak quietly even if someone paid him to do it, it would just be more of a whispered yell. Something that wasn’t really all that quiet.  

Virgil chuckled, “Whispered yell,” he muttered. 

“Okay, Virgil, can you try breathing in for four seconds, holding it for seven and then letting it out for eight?” 

Virgil nodded slightly, grabbing a breath and counting. Holding it. Letting it go. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Oh gosh, he was like a broken record at the moment, but it was helping. The blur around his eyes had gone away and he could see Patton standing in front of him. Patton’s hands slightly floating above Virgil’s shoulders. Virgil backed away from Patton, looking down at the floor as he held his arm. “Sorry,” He mumbled. 

“What? No, no, no! There’s nothing to be sorry about, Virgil. It’s fine,” Patton explained, “Do you know what brought that on? Was it something you saw in the kitchen?” 

“I-I.” Virgil was going to have to lie, that was not good. Not good at all. He didn’t want to lie to his friends. Wasn’t that what he was doing though? By not telling them that he knew them from before? “I don’t know.” Virgil wanted to go fall down into his bed and just lay there for who knows how long. 

“Here.” Logan handed Virgil the popcorn bowl that Patton had been holding, Patton must’ve handed it to Logan so he could help Virgil. “Eating helps after that. I suggest you have the majority of the popcorn from this bowl.” 

Virgil nodded, taking the bowl with his - still - shaky hands (thankfully he didn’t drop it). Holding the bowl close to his chest Virgil mouthed a thank you to Logan and Patton. Virgil suspected that Roman didn’t know how to help or else he would be up beside Virgil as well, Roman cared about others just as much as Patton and Logan did. The three of them went back and sat on the couch, Virgil keeping the popcorn bowl close and popping a piece into his mouth every few seconds. By the time the movie ended Virgil just wanted to go to sleep, almost falling asleep in the couch. It was a good thing it was Friday and he was staying over at Patton’s, Virgil didn’t want to get up; it was also a good thing that he was going to get the couch seeing as there were one too many couches in Patton’s house. There was actually enough couches for everyone to sleep on - including Dee once Virgil found him. 

The lights were soon turned off and everyone left to go to their couch, leaving Virgil alone on his. Virgil only stared up at the ceiling, counting the popcorn on it - it was a popcorn ceiling after all. Virgil had no idea how late it had been when he heard shuffling come from the couch beside him. 

“Virgil? You awake?” Patton whispered. Virgil sat up slightly as to look towards Patton. “I - was it because I went to the kitchen by myself?” Virgil’s eyes went wide, Patton couldn’t have just guessed that seeing as Virgil had never said anything about being afraid of being by himself. “I’m sorry if it’s not, I just - I get these dreams. I don’t really know what they are but it’s just this one that likes to repeat itself. It usually starts with the four of us on a couch, like we were before I left, and then you get up and then there’s - boom - a big explosion and I - I should stop talking. It’s probably not the same thing. G'night Virgil.” 

The rest of the night was quiet. 

 

**\---**

 

The morning, however, was not. 

“Rise and shine! I made breakfast!” Patton announced as he walked into the living room with a platter of food. Logan actually followed behind Patton, holding another platter full of even more food. “And Logan helped!” 

Roman and Virgil groaned, Virgil actually grabbing onto the blanket he was given and flipping over to face the back of the couch. Virgil did not want to get up at all; he was still tired from the night before, even if he was tired he couldn’t fall asleep. Roman just wasn’t a morning person. 

“Wake me up when the birds stop chirping!” Roman groaned into his pillow.

Logan stifled a laugh. “There are no birds chirping, Roman.” 

Roman sat up quickly, throwing his pillow towards Logan (which fell to the floor before getting anywhere close to Logan) and flipping over to stare at Logan. “Shush, Calculator Watch. The birds are only chirping for me, so I can get more sleep.” Surprisingly, a bird did start to chirp outside. “See?” 

Virgil chuckled as he rolled over onto his other side. “Alright, Princey, stop being so dramatic. I can only take so much in the morning.” 

Virgil did not expect the four of them to get this close in only two weeks. If anything, he expected to be even farther away from them, seeing as Virgil hadn’t thought the mini golf trip hadn’t gone so well. Honestly, the four of them were acting like they were six months into their friendship in their last life; though, the first few months were mostly just everyone (minus Patton) avoiding everyone. Virgil was pretty sure that he was really the last one to leave to get to know everyone, seeing as he was really the least trusting in the house at that moment. When your best friend betrays you really badly that tends to happen. 

Breakfast was mostly silence with a little side of funny jokes from Patton to try to get rid of that silence. Virgil wanted to laugh but he also didn’t want to choke; so he did neither. Roman did do both though. Logan just looked like he wanted to silence Patton most of the time, until the end when Logan did make a joke. Virgil was glad he was able to hang out with Logan, Patton, and Roman like he had back in the apartment. 

“So,” Logan began, as they walked into the kitchen (they were all here, it wasn’t like last time), “I saw that there was going to be a play happening by the theatre club. Are you going to audition, Roman?” Frankly, Logan did not seem to be the one to bring that up first. 

Roman gasped, “I am surprised you even need to ask that! I am, of course, going to audition!”  Virgil smiled a little, Roman always did like plays. Looks like that never changed.

Virgil frowned a little after realizing something. Just because they looked - and sometimes acted - like Virgil’s friends from his past life did not mean that they would end up being his friends from his past life. Virgil had noticed that Roman seemed to like singing more than he had in the apartment; Logan didn’t seem as unemotional; Patton didn’t seem as emotional (though, he was still very emotional but that wasn’t all that he was) either. They were all little things that Virgil had noticed during the past two weeks. Logan, Patton, and Roman may never get their memories back - by the way things were going they probably won’t - and that would be fine. Virgil liked Logan, Patton, and Roman as they were and as they are now. Virgil’s really got to stop comparing them against themselves though.  

“Virgil, are you okay? You zoned out for a moment there,” Patton questioned, laughing a little although Virgil could tell he was concerned. 

Virgil nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine, just thinkin’ is all.” 

 

**\---**

 

It was after supper by the time Logan and Virgil got back to Virgil’s house. For the majority of the day the four of them just played board games but near the end they did watch another movie. Virgil had gotten a message from his mum saying that she wanted Logan and Virgil home after supper though. Surprisingly, Patton didn’t live far from Virgil (how Virgil and Patton had never met is beyond Virgil’s knowledge) and it was really a thirty minute walk, somehow it was still out of the location for Virgil’s school so Patton had gone to school with Roman who lived an hour away from them (walking of course). Seriously though, how had Virgil never come across any of them before now? Logan didn’t even live that far from Virgil and apparently they had been friends before Logan moved farther away! It was that that really annoyed Virgil, that he had met Logan and didn’t remember it at all - curse his brain when he was four to six for forgetting Logan. 

“Hey Mum, we’re home!” Virgil yelled out as he walked into the house, slipping his shoes off at the door. 

“I’m in the living room!” Came his mum’s muffled reply. 

There was definitely more than one voice coming from the living room, Virgil could tell that much. Virgil was pretty sure Logan could as well. There seemed to be three, one obviously belonged to Virgil’s mum though so that only left two that Virgil had no idea who they were. Pushing open the sliding doors showed that there was - indeed - three people in the living room, two of which Virgil knew. Of course, everything just seemed to be a coincidence. Patton, Logan, and Roman living so close, and now, Dee’s in Virgil’s living room.

Virgil’s mum looked up from her conversation and smiled at him. “Virgil, these are our new neighbours! This is Mary and her son Deceit!” Virgil’s mum announced. Of course they were Virgil’s new neighbours. 

How lucky Virgil must be. First year at high school and he’s already found all his friends. Hopefully Dee’s as nice as he was back in the apartment, because right now Deceit does not look nice at all. Especially with that smirk on his face. 

“Logan, so good to see you again!” Deceit exclaimed as he stood up and hugged Logan, who looked very uncomfortable. 

“I - yes - it’s very...good to see you as well.” Logan did not look like he was telling the truth, if Virgil were to say anything. If anything, Logan almost seemed to dislike Deceit. 

**Author's Note:**

> I really hoped this worked, if not, crap, I'm too tired to deal with this for a fourth time (hahahahahahaha fourth time just like Virgil's life) until tomorrow. I've had this done on paper for hours, just got it done on digital and now my computer's messing stuff up, save me from the horrors of doing this again and work right please computer. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and next chapter should be more exciting!


End file.
